Thanking God for Me

Thank you to Judy at A Thankful Woman's Book of Blessings for hosting this great meme! Please click on the graphic on my sidebar to visit Judy's blog to check out more postings and participate with one of your own! 
I am doing this Thankful meme a bit differently this week. Actually a lot differently. Let me explain.

I have been listening to an audio retreat given by Fr. Larry Gillick, SJ, who has done other online retreats with Creighton University.I was excited to see this new one as I enjoy his talks very much. This one is called: The Spiritual Exercises: A confrontation with our shame. An invitation to honor.

The word that popped out at me was - shame. As an incest survivor, shame is something I have lived with most of my life. This retreat definitely called to me.

In the second conference, Fr. Gillick tells us that shame is redeemed by God's mercy. I sort of knew that. I mean, I knew that in my head. My heart hears things differently sometimes.

But Fr. Gillick said something I had never heard before nor had I ever thought of before. He says that each one of us needs to thank God for ourselves. That I need to thank God for ME.

We thank God for all of creation. We thank God for all the gifts He has given us, for our faith, for our family, etc. But what Fr. Larry says here is that we each need to thank God for the gift WE are. For the beauty of OUR created selves.

I never thought of that before. Ever. I mean, I have thanked God for the gift of life, but I do not think I have ever thought of thanking God for me.

Father goes on to tell a story about a time when he acted in a way that he was not proud of, that he was sorry for. He repented, but he says he was not ashamed. He was not ashamed because he knows he is a limited person. That he is limited, but loved. And that God knows all that. God does not want us to be ashamed. After all, He created us. We are all limited but loved.

We as parents know that our babies only sleep, eat, and mess their diapers! We love them even though they are limited, even though they cannot talk yet, cannot walk yet, cannot dress themselves and they wake us up in the middle of the night. We know all of this, and yet we are totally in love with them.

God is totally in love with us. Just as we are.

So this week, I have only one thing I wish to thank God for. For the first time in my life, I am going to thank God for me.

I am going to thank God for creating me, for giving me to the world, for dying on a cross for me. Seems kind of strange. Makes me want to cry. Makes me want to get on my knees and praise God. 
I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works! (Ps 139:14)
So tell me, I am dying to know. Am I alone? Have you ever thanked God for YOU?